Andrew M - Very interesting. I am always looking for better ways to present and organize information - particularly web based solutions. Perhaps I am a bit spoiled with postal history (first love & occupation) where public exhibits can be rather easily organized.
My philatelic website has client exhibits that are very easy to share http://www.rfrajola.com/exhibits.htm and organize for public viewing.
First of all Richard I must commend you for a fantastic philatelic website - although nominally off-topic here, the way it lays out information is great, and I loved the pictures and related stories.
The picture below is a further illustration of the power of web-based solutions: it illustrates and discusses a single coin
type (
RPC 5416, Octavian/Prow, of which I have three of the 12 known examples, the first of mine which incidentally I bought from
FORVM) and is actually a screenshot of a PDF, made via a print-to-pdf of this web page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/sets/72157616089488748/detail/?page=4The ability to layout the photos alphabetically (or
reverse alphabetical or chronological or by other keys) use of links to other coins, text, references and to a powerpoint presentation illustration, side-by-side comparison pics and close-ups, together with a plain white background to the web page with no other distracting material and no commercial stuff gives the visual impression of a properly written page from an old-fashioned book (which I can print to pdf and/or to paper-ink) whilst at the same time allowing dynamic exploration.
I only three days ago acquired and photographed the top-left hand coin: by simply copying over the same data as for the other coins of this
type, it automatically appeared on the page I wanted to the moment I uploaded it, just because I've set this particular set of coins to sort alphabetically; a quick visit to a comparator coin
RPC 533 a couple of cut and pastes and the lower right hand pic appeared on the webpage, a few minutes free hand text under the two new images and the upated page as you see it appears. Thus I have been able to dynamically build up the story of this coin, in fact over the last 3 months, one picture at a time, whilst at any one time I can print-to-pdf the webpage and thus memoralise the current status of my research on a given coin. Of course it is at all times available for the world to see if by chance they are interested in
RPC 5416 or any of the other 1600 coins on the site.
Overall it gives me a strong sense of control to have my
collection laid out in a manner that might pass for a book if printed to pdf, moreover available from any computer with an internet connection. My main page
http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/#quick which is primarily focussed on
numismatic books is the ultimate
index to finding my way around my own
collection.
Thus the bizzare scene often arises that I take a box of coins and then go onto my webpage in order to find the coins within. I do sometimes wonder what I need the physical coins for anymore!